ALBANIA, PAST AND PRESENT

CHAPTER I

ORIGIN OF THE ALBANIAN PEOPLE

I. THE EARLIEST SETTLERS OF ALBANIA

THE question of the origin of the Albanians is still a matter of controversy among the ethnologists. A great many theories have been propounded in solution of the problem relative to the place from which the original settlers of Albania proceeded to their present home. The existence of another Albania in the Caucasus, the mystery in which the derivation of the name "Albania" is enshrouded, and which name, on the other hand, is unknown to her people, and the fact that history and legend afford no record of the arrival of the Albanians in the Balkan Peninsula, have rendered the question of their origin a particularly difficult one.

But, however that may be, it is generally recognized to-day that the Albanians are the most ancient race in southeastern Europe. All indications point to the fact that they are the descendants of the earliest Aryan immigrants who were represented in historical times by the kindred Illyrians, Macedonians, and Epirots. According to the opinion of Dr. Hahn, the noted German ethnologist and linguist, who has made the most extensive research on the subject of the

origin of the Albanians, the Macedonians and Epirots formed the core of the pre-Hellenic, TyrrhenoPelasgian population, which inhabited the southern portion of the Peninsula and extended its limits to Thrace and Italy. The Illyrians were also Pelasgians, but in a wider sense. Moreover, Hahn also thinks that of these cognate races, which are described by the ancient Greek writers as "barbarous" and "non-Hellenic," the Illyrians were the progenitors of the Ghegs, or northern Albanians, and the Epirots the progenitors of the Tosks, or southern Albanians.1 This opinion of Dr. Hahn is borne out by the statement of Strabo 2 that the Via Egnatia or Ægitana, which he describes as forming the boundary between the Illyrians and the Epirots, practically corresponds with the course of the river Shkumbi, which now separates the Ghegs from the Tosks. The same geographer states that the Epirots were also called Pelasgians. The Pelasgian Zeus, whose memory survives even to-day in the appellation of God as "Zot" by the modern Albanians, was worshiped at Dodona, where the most famous oracle of ancient times was situated. The neighborhood of the sanctuary was called Pelasgia.*

On a cursory examination of the terms "Gheg” and "Tosk," it would appear that the name "Tosk" is possibly identical with "Truscus, Etruscus,'

1 See pp. 164–166 infra.

2 Strabo, Book VII, Fragm. 3.

3 Ibid., Book V, 2, 221. It is to be noted that the names "Epirus" and "Epirots" are of Greek origin. The meaning attached to them is purely geographical; they were attributed to the southern portion of Albania by the Greek colonists and writers in contradistinction to the insular position of the Ionian Islands. The name Epirus means simply "mainland" in Greek.

4 Herodotus, Book II, 56.

while the form "Tyrrhenus" perhaps survives in Tirana, the principal city of Central Albania, for which no other current explanation exists.

These findings of the ethnologists are, moreover, strengthened by the unbroken traditions of the natives, who regard themselves, and with pride, as the descendants of the aboriginal settlers of the Balkan Peninsula. They, therefore, think that they have the best claims on it. It is also on the strength of these traditions that the Albanian looks upon the other Balkan nationalities as mere intruders who have expropriated him of much that was properly his own. Hence the constant border warfare which has gone on for centuries between the Albanian and his neighbors.

II. THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE

A more concrete evidence of the Illyrian-Pelasgian origin of the Albanians is supplied by the study of the Albanian language.

Notwithstanding certain points of resemblance in structure and phonetics, the Albanian language is entirely distinct from the tongues spoken by the neighboring nationalities. This language is particularly interesting as the only surviving representative of the so-called Thraco-Illyrian group of languages, which formed the primitive speech of the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula. Its analysis presents, however, great difficulties, as, owing to the absence of early literary monuments, no certainty can be arrived at with regard to its earlier forms and later developments. The presence of a large number of foreign words makes it difficult to decide whether the mutilated and curtailed forms, now in

use, represent adopted words or belong to the original vocabulary. Its groundwork, however, so far as it can be ascertained, and the grammar are distinctly Indo-European.

In the course of time the Albanian language has been impregnated, as it has already been said, by a large number of foreign words, mainly of ancient Greek and Latin, which are younger than the Albanian language, but there are certain indications that the primitive Illyrian language exerted a certain degree of influence on the grammatical development of the languages now spoken in the Balkan Peninsula.

There is, however, a very striking feature in this whole matter: that the Albanian language affords the only available means for a rational explanation of the meaning of the names of the ancient Greek gods as well as of the rest of the mythological creations, so as exactly to correspond with the faculties attributed to these deities by the men of those times. The explanations are so convincing as to confirm the opinion that the ancient Greek mythology had been borrowed, in its entirety, from the Illyrian-Pelasgians. We have already stated that the Zeus survives as "Zot" in the Albanian language. The invocation of his name is the common form of oath among the modern Albanians. Athena (the Latin Minerva), the goddess of wisdom as expressed in speech, would evidently owe its derivation to the Albanian "E thena," which simply means "speech." Thetis, the goddess of waters and seas, would seem to be but the Albanian "Det" which means "sea." It would be interesting to note that the word "Ulysses," whether in its Latin or the Greek form

"Odysseus," means "traveler" in the Albanian language, according as the word "udhe," which stands for both "route" and "travel," is written with “d” or "l," both forms being in use in Albanian. Such examples may be supplied ad libitum. No such facility is, however, afforded by the ancient Greek language, unless the explanation be a forced and distorted one; but in many instances even such forced and distorted one is not available at all.

The Homeric poems, on the other hand, abound in words which survive only in the actually spoken Albanian language. Nay, entire phrases may be taken from Homer as typical Albanian expressions. It is to be regretted, indeed, that no attempt has been made as yet to interpret Homer in the light which may be thrown on the meaning of his writings with the aid of the Albanian language.1 Such a comparative study may do much toward overcoming many difficulties of interpretation, and, as the Albanian language is much older than the Greek, a great many things may be learned as to the influence of the former on the Homeric and subsequent Greek language.

In addition, we should not forget the fact that Zeus was a Pelasgian god, par excellence, his original place of worship being Dodona.

Still another interesting feature is that the principal legends of ancient Greece are still alive in the popular myths of the Albanian people. The Cy

1 These remarks are based on personal observations made by the writer in an off-hand study of the Homeric poems with the assistance of the Albanian language. The writer has to confess, however, that he is not a linguist. He was merely struck by the peculiar resemblance of expression and phraseology which he encountered in reading Homer.